Is shifting the cost of collecting tardy...

SOUTHERN BELL

May 24, 1986|Compiled from staff reports

COCOA — SOUTHERN BELL is shifting the cost of collecting tardy phone payments to the customers who pay their bills late. The company will begin assessing a 1.5 percent charge to unpaid balances on telephone bills after June 16. A $50 phone bill dated June 17 would be subject to a late-payment charge of 75 cents if unpaid after July 17. The charge is a penalty for paying late, not a finance charge to allow indefinite extensions of credit, Southern Bell district manager Tom Hunt said. The charge would be applied to the total unpaid balance including all local and long-distance charges.